Political violence of past threatens to resurface

Something fishy is in the works and it doesn't smell very good. On Thursday evening, two students demonstrating against Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej were shot and wounded. The two were among 100 students marching to Samak's home when a gunman riding pillion on a motorbike fired the two shots, hitting the pair at close range. One of the students was shot in his left leg, the other in his left arm.

The initial assessment of the situation was that the attackers meant only to further the current politically charged crisis, not necessarily to kill the two students.

The gunman reportedly opened fire about four metres from his targets and then sped away from the scene.

Furious at the incident, the students participating in the march, mostly from Ramkhamhaeng University, changed their destination from Samak's home to the Lat Phrao police station, where they camped out through most of the night demanding that authorities get to the bottom of the matter.

Needless to say, the situation is getting out of hand. Street protesters, union members, state-enterprise workers and university students are all jumping on the bandwagon calling for the ouster of Samak, who is accused of acting as a proxy for ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra.

The pro-government mob clashed with anti-government demonstrators on Tuesday, resulting in one death and more than 40 injuries on both sides.

What is worrying about the shooting on Thursday is that it shared so many similarities with past incidents. It followed a certain pattern, whereby what appears initially to be merely an isolated incident is later, when it's too late, found to be a state-sponsored attack.

Remember in September 1976 when two labour activists working for state power plants were hung by a group of pro-government right-wing thugs who wanted to teach the nagging workers a good lesson?

Let's also not forget the Black May massacre in 1992, when the so-called "third hand" heightened the political violence at the time by going around smashing up places and burning down the government Lottery Bureau.

Police spokesman Surapol Tuanthong tried hard on Thursday night to calm the students, and he reminded them that their protest in front of the police station was not permitted under the current state of emergency.

Surapol didn't say anything about the situation at Government House, where thousands of anti-government demonstrators have been holding the fort for nearly two weeks now.

If you think that was an absurd explanation, the statement from Bangkok Metropolitan Police acting chief Jongrak Juthanont wasn't much better.

According to Jongrak, the shooter was probably a local resident who was irritated by the noise the students were making with their late-night demonstration and decided to shoot them as a result.

If that was the case, why haven't more Bangkok residents gunned down racing motorcyclists, especially those who enjoy going against the flow of traffic? His logic doesn't hold water.

While it's still too early to determine if the situation will go in the same direction as past times when unruly mobs became pro-government militias ready to kill at the snap of a finger, Thailand, nevertheless, needs to learn from its horrific past. The Navapol, Red Gaur and Village Scout movements have provided some examples of how things can get out of hand.

Moreover, it didn't help when People's Alliance for Democracy leader Veera Somkwamkit called on vocational students to join hands with pro-government demonstrators to go against the Democratic Alliance Against Dictatorship.

In the past, we have seen that movement leaders, with their tendency to boast about the moral high ground, have no qualms about marching their supporters to their deaths. In the end they come out looking like decorated heroes. Those who gave up their lives are often forgotten.